The Rubaga Division councilors have petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga over what they called negligence of Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) to collect garbage around the city and on being taxed Pay As You Earn (PAYE) on the allowances they receive.
The petition was delivered to the Speaker during a meeting in her boardroom on Monday, 17 June 2019.
Musa Mbazira, who spoke on behalf of the delegation of said garbage collection in the city is a legal mandate of KCCA that has for long been neglected and left to private garbage collection companies which charge a high fee.
“There is uncollected garbage in many areas of the city because these communities cannot afford the costs of private garbage collectors. This has led to garbage flowing into drainage channels when it rains and diseases arising out of the dirt, like the Cholera outbreak in Rubaga last year,” he said.
Mbazira added that ground rent paid by people in the Divisions in the city serves the purpose of funding collection of garbage, street lighting and road maintenance by KCCA. However, he said, “KCCA has failed especially on the part of garbage”.
Mbazira also noted that Councilors were being charged PAYE on their Mobilisation Allowance which affects their delivery.
“This money is supposed to facilitate with moving around and sensitising people on key programmes but we only get a fraction because it is taxed,” he said.
He also complained that KCCA has for a long time taken over the financing, planning and budgeting for Kampala Divisions yet it is supposed to be managed by the Division leadership.
In response, Kadaga said that she had hoped that the amendment Bill for KCCA would handle these issues raised by the councilors especially those concerning their sovereignty as Division leaders.
“However, every time we bring up the Bill on the Order Paper for discussion the Ministers keep dodging it,” Kadaga added.
She further promised to raise the matter of the allowances with the finance ministry and to arrange a meeting with the Minister for Kampala and acting KCCA Executive Director to discuss all the other issues.
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